What are some ideas for green tot trays?
It is green week for toddler school which means green toddler trays! It’s weird to think that we only have one more color week after this. Doing one set of trays a week (as opposed to a set of trays for two weeks) sure goes by a lot quicker. These Montessori inspired green toddler trays are so fun, plus your toddler will learn so much. Green week for toddler school was definitely a success.
Special Green Tray: Green Math Cubes
We had these awesome math cubes and we really haven’t used them much. But we loved playing with the green ones on this tray, We will hopefully be using them more in the future.
Color Game: I Spy Color Cards
Your toddler will love these cards! Check out the original post to see how to play with these I Spy Color Cards.
Transferring
This toddler tray has a bunch of green popsicle sticks (that you can paint with do-a-dot markers) in a green cup. It also has this really cool water bottle ice cube tray (you can use this to make bathtub crayons and for another fun transferring activity). Have your child take the popsicle sticks from the cup and put them into the ice cube tray. You may have to remind them that there should only be one popsicle stick in each opening. This is great one-to-one correspondence practice!
Fine Motor
We have done several toddler trays like this since we started in January and it is still one of my toddlers favorite activities. Have your child push the green golf tees into the green flower foam. Have them paint the golf tees with markers. We love using do-a-dot markers, but it didn’t stay very well. I think the golf tees had a layer of varnish on them or something. Regardless, this toddler tray is really fun. Golf tees are a wonderful Montessori material for toddlers.
Sensory
This tray has green glass gems and playdough. Playdough is used several times in these color trays, but it is so much fun and a great sensory material for toddlers. You can add the green glass gems for your toddler to explore and be creative.
Spooning
Spooning is a common Montessori activity. It is great because it teaches your child how to use a spoon. They will learn how to better control their spoon at an earlier age thanks to these spooning toddler trays. This tray has a green bowl, a green cup, some green pompoms, and a spoon. Use a regular kitchen spoon if that is the one you want your toddler to learn how to use. 🙂 Have them spoon the pompoms from the bowl into the cup. These toddler school activities translate so well to real life!
It’s also a fun time with the green learning notebook pages. My toddler’s favorite page this time was definitely the traffic light page. We use that page again when we get to the red toddler trays. Toddler school has been going well and putting together these green toddler trays has been fun. It is fun to see how much your child is learning!
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First of all, i recently found your blog and LOVE it! Im going crazy pinning your posts haha. Secondly, i was so excited to see this post because i just started a color study with my toddler! Yay! I hope you do all the colors!
Rebecca, I’m so glad you enjoy my blog! Nothing makes me happier than to hear that. Thank you!!! 🙂 Also, we are doing all of the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple), but we have already finished all of them except red. Red will be next week. Hope you enjoy. 🙂
I’ve followed your posts for a little while now, and I love reading all your ideas! One thing I want to know, though, is when / how you have time to prepare all these activities, go shopping for supplies, etc? I have four little ones (ages 0 – 5) and I barely have time to clean up after them and get all the laundry done! By the time they get to sleep at night I’m so tired myself that I don’t have energy to prep stuff like this. When I have prepared some of your activities for them, they breeze through it all and seem to make more work in cleaning it all up. Any ideas? Can you do a post about your daily schedule, not just the schedule of activities for the kids, but also when you prepare things and get everything ready for when you need it? Does that make sense? Thanks!
Becky, I imagine it must be so busy with four little ones under the age of 5! I feel so busy with only two. 😉 The thing that takes up the most amount of time for me is the planning and shopping. Once I know what I’m doing, it honestly only takes me 20-30 minutes to set everything up. Also, I usually have to sit with my two year old and do the activities before he’ll get interested in them. I spend a lot of time doing the trays with him (sometimes up to an hour) at the beginning of the week. However, by the end of the week he can usually keep himself busy with the trays for at least 30 minutes at a time. And he often will do the trays multiple times a day. Hopefully that helps with some of your questions.
Love the trays! As always, great ideas!
{And I love the freshly combed toddler hair!}
Ah yes, there is something so cute about freshly combed toddler hair isn’t there. 🙂